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Sapnap isn't ready in the slightest to have wings.
His metamorphosis is tomorrow , and he's endlessly nervous about it - he couldn't even eat breakfast this morning because he's so worried. Getting his silk and his wings sounds awful and scary , no matter how much his friends all try to assure him it'll be alright.
"It's your metamorphosis ," Bad had told him. " Every SilkWing goes through it, Sapnap, it's the most natural thing in the world. You'll be alright."
Easy for him to say, is what Sapnap thinks about Bad's comments. Bad is a NightWing , he never went through metamorphosis - not like Sapnap is going to, in a few days. He doesn't understand it - not even if he's one of the smartest dragons in Unity. Bad knows lots of things (almost everything, Sapnap thinks) but he's never done a metamorphosis so how does he know it'll be alright?
"I already went through mine and I'm fine, aren't I?" Was Sylvee's response a few days ago, when she got sick of him pacing back and forth in the loft above Bad's main living room - the one he used to share with Dream and George, back when they were tiny dragonets. "I mean, look at me, Sapnap, I've got silk and wings but I'm still me ."
Sylvee is the only other SilkWing that Sapnap knows. Most of their tribe live back on Pantala, and while some of them have chosen to move to Pyrrhia, they're few and far between. Sapnap doesn't even know his parents - they died before he was born, and he was brought here, in egg, by an uncle and later adopted by Bad. This is the only home he's ever known and Sylvee is the only other SilkWing he's ever known.
So everything she's saying should be comforting, because her metamorphosis was a few months back and she came out herself again, just a little bigger because of the added height from her wings.
Sapnap knows that, and he knows that he's still going to be him , but being him with wings sounds somewhat terrifying, if he's honest with himself. He's not ready for that. He's not ready to be able to fly yet! He's not sure how any of his friends can stand it - sure, all of them grew up with wings but flying is absolutely completely terrifying.
There are cliffs and trees to run into up there, he could fall out of the sky and break his neck, his wings could get struck by lightning - all of that is dangerous , while the ground here is safe and secure and solid beneath his talons.
"You've just had bad experiences with flying before, that's all," Sylvee had huffed at him, rolling up the scroll she was trying to read. "From that time the valley flooded and Bad had to pull you out. It's better when you have your own wings, because when you have your own wings, you're in control of your own flight."
She's right about that - a lot of his fear of flying does come from that particular incident. The winter before Sapnap turned three was filled with heavy, endless snow that crowded the valleys and the mountaintops, and when it melted in spring it swelled up the rivers and lakes to the point they overflowed, and with added heavy rains the entire valley that Unity is built in flash flooded so quickly everyone had to run for higher ground.
Sapnap and Sylvee had to be carried off one of the roofs by dragons with wings - Sylvee by their SandWing neighbor and Sapnap by Bad. He remembers that experience as one of the worst in his entire short life, being yanked off the ground in someone else's talons, at risk of slipping out of Bad's hold and falling in the water to drown at any moment .
That was the day Sapnap decided that all his friends are wrong and flying is absolutely completely terribly awful and he's going to avoid it for the rest of his life if he has to.
None of his other friends have been very helpful either. Sam only told him he was excited for the two of them to go flying once he was done with his metamorphosis, George had told him he was excited for Sapnap to be there for five days because he would shut up and stop bothering him (which tells Sapnap that George is going to miss him a lot ), and Gia was excited to see what his wings would look like so she could try to match them with her color-changing RainWing scales.
Only Skeppy had been the slightest bit comforting, being that he told Sapnap he could start making things with his silk like Sylvee does, like ropes and nets and hammocks. Sapnap likes the sound of that. Ropes and nets are reasonable ways to get from place to place - at least in those cases he has something to grip onto with his talons and climb .
Really, though, Sapnap knows none of his friends can be really comforting (at least not in the way he wants them to be) so he goes to find Dream.
Dream is where he always is at this time of day, when the brilliant sunlight far overhead beats down on Unity with enough heat to make everyone curl up inside and nap for the blazing hot afternoons. Dream doesn't sleep indoors anymore, though, not since the other MudWings in Unity built the swamp pools down by the shores of the river, where it turns wide and lazy around a bend, leaving a big pool and plenty of mud .
Sapnap carefully steps across the grass beside the swamp pools, hopping over tails and carefully skirting around wings of sleeping dragons until he finally spots Dream on the other side of the clearing, sitting on a rock with his tail lazily stirring a pool of water below him, a scroll spread out before him on the stone and his claws stained with dark green ink.
He's awake, thinking and writing down whatever new ideas he's got spinning around in his head. Dream's always full of ideas - that's one of Sapnap's favorite things about him. Ideas, thoughts, exciting new plans, Dream's got it all.
And in Sapnap's opinion, Dream is the most beautiful dragon in the entire world.
Sure, SilkWings like him are every color of the rainbow, and RainWings can change to be whatever color they want and SeaWings have glowing stripes and NightWings look like the obsidian-dark sky with star-scales freckling their wings, but Dream, like all MudWings, is a warm amber-brown, with unique hints of mossy green along his scales and spines.
He looks like earth and rivers and security and the feeling of the solid ground beneath Sapnap's talons - being around him makes Sapnap feel the way he does when he lies down on the grass outside Bad's house, with his chest and belly to the earth - secure and safe and solid.
He's big, like all MudWings are, with large wings and a broad back and powerful talons, that are currently delicately writing something on the scroll in front of him.
"Sapnap?" He looks up in surprise as Sapnap walks up to him, his soft eyes glittering in the afternoon sunlight. "What are you doing down here so close to your metamorphosis?"
"Bad says it's not going to happen until tomorrow," Sapnap tells him, sighing, before he climbs up on the rock beside Dream, feeling Dream unfurl one of his big wings over him, pulling him close. Sapnap will deal with the slimy feeling of mud on his talons for this feeling, the security and warmth that Dream gives him, the safety .
Dream nods, glancing momentarily at his writing before smiling at Sapnap. "When tomorrow, do you know?"
"Early in the morning," Sapnap says with a sigh, reaching down to scratch at his wrists. He looks down at them, staring at the little firefly-specks of light inside each one. Small, but so, so significant. In under a day, he's going to be asleep in his cocoon, undergoing his metamorphosis.
He doesn't want to do that, he wants to lie here in the warm sun with Dream's wing over him and pretend none of this is happening at all.
"Are you excited for it?" Dream asks, nudging him gently. He laughs. "You get to sleep for five days , and when you come out you'll have wings ."
"And silk," Sapnap reminds him, scratching at his silk glands again. "I guess."
"You guess?" Dream's wing pulls more securely over him and he gives Sapnap a concerned look. "Are you okay?"
"I'm alright," Sapnap says, even though he doesn't really feel alright. "Just tired. It's taking so long , Dream, I just wish it would happen already."
Dream laughs, reaching over to touch one of Sapnap's talons, holding it warmly in one of his own. "You're so close , though. Bad said early morning, right? We could stay up until then! Pull an all nighter right before your metamorphosis day and do whatever you want the whole time."
That sounds fun, Sapnap thinks, the rest of his time before his metamorphosis spent with Dream sounds awesome , actually. No expectations or pressure to do anything, just time with his favorite dragon in the world on his last day of being wingless. He sighs, leaning into Dream and letting himself absorb the heat from Dream's sun-warmed scales.
Tomorrow is his metamorphosis, which will mark the beginning of a life filled with Wings and Expectations, but today is a day filled with sunlight and warmth and his wing buds twitching now and then, waiting to unfurl. His wrists itch a little, though, and when he looks down at them he notices that the little bright spots have gotten slightly bigger and slightly brighter, even in the few minutes he's spent talking to Dream.
He doesn't want to think about them or look at them at all, what he wants to do is lie here on this big, warm rock, listening to Dream's claws scratch at the parchment of the scroll as he writes. It's a warm sound, a homey sound, one that makes him feel sleepy and peaceful and happy.
Dream eventually finishes whatever he's been working on and tucks it into the waterproof satchel under one of his wings, along with his little pot of ink. MudWing scrolls and ink are designed to be waterproof and mud-proof, but a little extra caution doesn't hurt.
Sapnap follows him down to a warm part of the river, wading in to splash the mud off himself and watching Dream dive below the surface, his spine and tail vanishing as gracefully as a crocodile as he slips into the current to wash off.
They take the long way back to Bad's house so they can dry off, their scales shimmering in the warm light, sunshine dancing along them like gemstones. Sapnap feels himself dry off, carefully stretching his wing buds in all the right directions so the wind can get in and dry them off. He unfurls his antennae for a little too, but furls them right back in once they get closer to the town, the noise and movement too chaotic for him to handle without being overwhelmed.
Bad's house is empty - Sylvee's apparently gone to find somewhere else to read where Sapnap won't bother her, and Bad and Skeppy are either down at the market or out hunting. The house is still busy somehow, though, filled with all sorts of reminders of the dragons who live here, spilling out of bedrooms and into the yard.
A half-woven tapestry on a loom near the wall, next to a pile of architecture plans and a scattering of open reading scrolls all over the floor of the main living space, beside a couple of bits of jewelry tossed over a table and a book open to a page on SilkWing metamorphosis, that Bad probably left out in the hopes Sapnap would see it.
They walk to the kitchen first, to get something to eat - frozen grapes, thanks to Skeppy's frostbreath - before heading upstairs to the loft.
Only Sapnap's bed is in there, a soft pile of carpets in one corner, and the floor looks painfully empty, the bed especially lonely. Back when they were all younger, Sapnap shared the loft with George and Dream, but since they've gotten older they've made their own bedrooms in other rooms of the house.
Dream plops down on it anyways, stretching his back before grinning up at Sapnap. "It's your last day, Sapnap, you get to pick what we do!"
"I want to," Sapnap pauses, a million responses flickering through his head. I want to stay wingless forever. I want to lie in here with you and pretend nothing bad will happen. I want this day to last forever, because then I'll never have to get my wings. "Uh… I actually don't know what I want to do."
"We could play a game," Dream offers. "Or, I mean we don't have to be here - we could go exploring - I know you won't be able to fly until after your metamorphosis but…" he trails off, then looks up at Sapnap with those big green eyes of his.
"I don't want to fly," Sapnap confesses, coming to lie down beside Dream, tucking himself under Dream's wing and leaning down to rest his head on his front talons. "Not ever ."
Will I still fit under his wings when I have mine? Sapnap thinks with a sickening pit opening in his belly. What if my wings make me too big? And I can't fit under Dream's like I did before?
He hadn't even thought of that and now it's making him really sad, because he likes being able to fit underneath one of Dream's wings and curl up against him. Dream's the biggest member of their friend group - he's got the size and power that all MudWings do - but no one else can fit underneath his wings like Sapnap can, and Sapnap doesn't want to lose that.
"Not ever? " Dream sounds concerned as he leans down to nudge Sapnap with his snout. "Really?"
"Yeah," Sapnap sighs. "Never." He flicks his tail a little until it's twined with Dream's, then looks over at him, twisting his snout so he can look at Dream's big green eyes. "I like being on the ground - it's solid and sturdy and safe ."
"I know," Dream nods. "It's like… lying in a mud puddle is the best thing ever - even though the rest of you don't get it - it's warm and safe and it feels like being held by the earth, y'know? Secure."
Held by the earth . Sapnap thinks to himself, leaning into Dream's side. Like how I feel curled up under Dream's wing. Secure and safe.
"But I also love flying," Dream says wistfully. "The wind on your wings, the smell of fresh air - it's especially fun when it's raining and you can get all soaking wet from the clouds - it's nice and cool on your scales."
Sapnap laughs at that, cozying closer to Dream. "Only you would like flying in the rain."
"Gia likes flying in the rain!" Dream protests, looking at Sapnap in astonishment. "And so does George… sometimes."
Sapnap nods, smiling. "Gia's a RainWing - I think it'd be a little weird if she didn't like flying in the rain - and George is a SkyWing, Dream, he likes flying no matter what ."
Dream is right, though - George may like flying but he's a member of the only tribe that can fly over the cloud cover - SkyWings are lucky like that, with their larger lungs and bigger wings. George doesn't have to fly in the rain if he doesn't want to, although sometimes he puts up with the rain for Dream's sake
"Yeah, I guess he does," Dream thinks, shaking his head with a laugh. "But I think you'll like flying - and if you don't , then we can just stay on the ground. There's mud on the ground - mud and frozen grapes."
Sapnap snickers. "Not if George keeps giving me all the bad ones."
Dream shifts his wings a little before tucking the one around Sapnap a little tighter, holding him just slightly closer than before. "And you'll have silk! That's exciting, right?"
"Yeah," Sapnap looks down at his wrists again, then scratches at the glowing specks of light beneath his scales. He holds his talons out so Dream can look at the light, and Dream traces a claw down one curiously.
"I didn't know they glowed," Dream whispers, fascinated.
"I didn't either," Sapnap says, sighing. "I don't think Sylvee's did…" He stares at the little glowing spots under his scales and frowns, the worry from earlier coming back. "Do you think something's… wrong with them?"
"I dunno," Dream shakes his head, sniffing Sapnap's scales. He hums to himself with that expression on his face, the one he makes when he's trying to figure something out or solve a particularly difficult puzzle. "They don't hurt , do they?" He asks.
"A little," Sapnap admits, reaching down to rub at the little glowing lights under his skin. "It's like they're… burning."
Dream wraps Sapnap's wrist in his big talons and holds it, as though his fireproof scales can somehow take the feeling away. He rubs a claw over Sapnap's scales for a bit, before gently setting it down. "I wonder if Bad has any books on SilkWings."
"There's one on the table downstairs," Sapnap offers, dreading the fact he'll have to leave the perfect little cave under Dream's wing to go get it. "I think Bad left it out this morning,"
Dream nods, then carefully stands, tossing a blanket over Sapnap, even though it's a poor replacement for the warmth of Dream's wing around him. Sapnap watches him flex his wings and leap off the side of the loft, floating down to the living room and disturbing scrolls with his movements. Sapnap hears a rustle of parchment and soon Dream is back up on the loft, folding his wings in so he can come and sit beside him.
"Here," Dream flips through the book until he finds the right section. Sapnap catches the title as he does so - A Guide To The Dragon World, compiled by Starflight of the NightWings - it's one of the most popular books on the continent, even though it's almost twenty years old, and it's especially popular in Unity - mostly because it's information on the tribes is accurate and fair, which is a lot more than Sapnap could say about other books on the topic.
The section on SilkWings has several drawings and diagrams, showing their unique wings, a dragonet's wingbuds, antennae, and silk glands - features unique to his tribe alone. Dream looks down at the part of the book talking about SilkWing abilities and traces a claw along the page as he reads it over.
"What does it say?" Sapnap asks, nudging Dream aside so he can get a better look.
"It's talking about SilkWing metamorphosis," Dream nods, tapping the paper carefully. "It says some SilkWings are born with a rare ability called flamesilk."
Sapnap feels a ripple of wonder down his spine at the word. "Like… the heroes who overthrew Queen Wasp? Blue and Luna?"
Sapnap's never met any of the dragons who overthrew the dictator former Queen of the HiveWings over two decades ago, but he's heard plenty of stories and read about it in history scrolls - he'd never assumed that he could be a flamesilk before, though - it's so rare . Sapnap thinks about that for a minute, looking at his wrists. A flamesilk . Him .
He likes that thought.
"Yeah," Dream nods, reading the section again. "It doesn't have a lot of information on it other than that, though." He closes the book. "Bad could probably find us another book on flamesilks." He scoots the book away and lies down more to his side, his wing yanking Sapnap over against him as he does so. "But I don't really want to get up right now."
"Dream, you're squishing me," Sapnap protests, doing absolutely nothing to fight back against the warm wing wrapped around him. He nestles closer to Dream, scratching at his wrists once before pressing one wrist against Dream's warm scales, which seems to help. His wingbuds twitch a little as he settles, and a part of him wishes they were free already - he feels almost cramped right now, his wings all bundled up and ready to grow in his cocoon. Wings come with expectations, though, expectations like flying .
His stupid wingbuds twitch again and Sapnap shifts, trying to get comfortable even as the muscles inside spasm again, the membranes fighting to free themselves.
Wait . Sapnap mentally commands them. I'm not even in my cocoon yet .
He sighs, pressing himself into Dream and nestling until he gets comfortable. Dream crunches thoughtfully on a frozen grape, and slides a talonfull of them to Sapnap. He looks content as Sapnap feels, cozied right up against his best friend in the warm loft, their tails twined together. Dream smells like sunshine and grapes and earthy, rich warmth, and Sapnap resists the urge to bury his snout in Dream's scales to get a better sniff. Sapnap eats a grape, happier here than he's felt all day.
"You sure you don't want to do anything for your last day wingless?" Dream asks, leaning down to rest his head beside Sapnap's. "We could get food from the stand in the market you like - the one with the fish?"
Sapnap thinks it's probably weird that he eats meat. Apparently his tribe back on Pantala are vegetarians, but Sapnap's grown up here on Pyrrhia and he's been eating meat since he was a dragonet. He likes meat, though, and he does like the sushi that SeaWing in the market sells…
It's tempting, but Sapnap shakes his head, leaning against Dream again and sighing happily. "No," He responds. "I wanna stay here with you."
"Okay," Dream looks flattered as he lies down beside Sapnap again, curling up so Sapnap's back is brushing against his belly and their back talons are tangled around one another just as much as their tails are. Sapnap lets his eyes drift closed and inhales Dream's warmth, slipping into a peaceful, hazy doze.
He wakes a few hours later to Bad calling their names, standing downstairs and looking a little concerned before both of them come down from the loft, tired and fuzzy-feeling with sleep. Sapnap arches his back like a cat before he climbs down the ladder on the wall after Dream, who's flown down to Bad's side.
Bad watches him climb with an amused and slightly wistful expression. "We'll have to take that down - after your metamorphosis none of us will need it."
"Don't take it down!" Sapnap finds himself saying immediately, a rush of anxiety filling him as he remembers that in five days he'll be expected to fly . "Don't take it down!" He grips the silk cords of the ladder firmly and stares at Bad who looks a little startled at Sapnap's defensiveness. He nods slowly.
"I won't," He assures Sapnap gently, holding up one of his talons. "I won't take it down, Sapnap, I promise."
Sapnap nods, feeling stupid all of a sudden. He scratches at his wrists again, which are now glowing so brightly he could probably read by the light coming from them. His wingbuds twitch and Sapnap sighs, releasing the ladder to follow Bad and Dream into the kitchen.
It's a dim late-evening outside, but inside the kitchen is warm and bright and full of laughter and all his friends, with roasted boar and plenty of fruit all over the table. Sapnap slides in beside Dream in the warm light of the kitchen's glowing candles and watches one curiously, thinking about the glowing embers under his scales.
"How long do you have left?" George asks, setting down the hawk he'd brought in from hunting. His dark red scales glitter in the light from the candles. He's short for a SkyWing - his scales are a red so dark they almost look purple, and his wings are huge , but they're folded up neatly behind him as he watches Sapnap curiously.
Soon . His internal clock tells him. My metamorphosis is only a few hours away .
"I dunno," Sapnap shakes his head, sighing as he comes to sit down beside the table. "A few hours, I think." He picks up a blueberry, worrying it between his claws and staring at the blue surface.
"Shouldn't be until early morning at the very least," Bad says, sitting down beside Skeppy at the table. He smiles at Sapnap, leaning into the cool wing Skeppy puts over his shoulders. "Right when the second moon is starting to set. That's what I've seen."
Bad can see the future - an ability given to him after he hatched under a full moon - but not very clearly and nothing more than occasional glimpses here and there. Still, he sounds accurate, at least to Sapnap, who can feel his metamorphosis approaching, as steady as his heartbeat.
"Yeah," Sapnap nods, sliding himself under Dream's wings. And maybe it's the last few hours I can do this . He doesn't want to leave Dream's wings again. He's too worried about his metamorphosis and losing this, the ability to be hugged by Dream in a way none of his friends can be.
"Does it hurt?" Sam asks from across the table, after he swallows a bite of mango. "To like… spin the cocoon and grow wings? That would hurt, right?"
"It doesn't hurt," Sylvee shakes her head. "It's just like falling asleep - you hardly remember any of it, and then you wake up with wings." She yawns, stretching her own wings, which are a pale shade of cherry-blossom pink patterned with sunset purple and the faintest buttery yellow here and there, matching the rest of her scales.
"What do you think they'll look like?" Sapnap says, half to himself, as he examines his scales. "I mean… Sylvee's wings turned out looking like the rest of her scales… what do you think mine will look like?"
"Big and orange," George offers unhelpfully, trotting over to sit beside Skeppy and grab a piece of roasted meat, which he uses his fire to char to a burned crisp before eating in a single bite.
"Maybe your wings will be blue," Gia suggests, looking him up and down. Her scale colors - which were previously the rose-pink shade they turn whenever she's happy - are slowly shifting to match Sapnap's scales, gold, orange, and light red, with the faintest hints of purple-blue along his sides, down his spines, and over his horns.
"Like this," She raises one of her wings, showing that she's changed her scales to a shade of blue that matches his spines. Her wings are dotted all over with little flakes of bright yellow here and there, the same shade as Sapnap's belly scales.
"I think he'll be more yellow," Skeppy offers thoughtfully, peeling an orange with his serrated claws. He pauses to freeze it partially with his frostbreath, before taking a bite of the fruit. It crunches, and Sapnap rolls an orange to him so Skeppy can freeze it for him, too.
"Orange," George insists, eating a slice of apple and thinking to himself for a moment. "Or maybe red."
"That's my guess," Bad nods, looking at the scales close to Sapnap's spine. "Probably red, mostly, maybe with little hints of blue here and there."
"Brown," Sylvee offers. "The rest of you is the color of autumn and I've heard that red and orange SilkWings have brown wings sometimes, to blend in with tree bark."
Sapnap wouldn't mind being brown. He glances at Dream's warm brown scales, the color of the safe, solid earth. He'd like that color, actually, being the same color as Dream and the ground and the safety it comes with.
"Who knows," Dream says curiously. "Maybe they'll be green or something," He fluffs his wings slightly, looking down at the mossy shimmer over the pale scales. "We could match."
Sapnap smiles, nodding, and leans closer to Dream, eating the blueberry he was playing with so he can accept the orange from Skeppy, which is frozen into a ball of slush-y juice that tastes awesome .
He and Dream have never talked about it, about this, and Sapnap honestly doesn't really want to, not now, when he's so close to his metamorphosis, and especially not when he loves it so much. He likes loving Dream, in this easy, casual, homey way, where Dream is warm and safe and kind and Sapnap loves him. This is nice, he likes it, and he wouldn't change it for anything.
Sapnap wonders what his friends think, sometimes, about the way he and Dream lie against on another in a way they don't quite do with anyone else, or the way Sapnap always slips himself under Dream's wings whenever he can, or the way their tails twine like they were made for one another's. He doesn't know what any of them think, and if he's entirely honest he doesn't care. He likes this, and he can like it just for him.
The conversation shifts and they eat the rest of dinner talking about their days and listening to one another, the air heavy and warm and safe with the smells and sounds of home. Sapnap finds himself drifting again as he leans against Dream, his body shifting a little. He's so tired , probably because his metamorphosis is soon, but his body feels like it's made of stone and all he wants to do is curl up under Dream's wings and nap for a thousand years.
He startles back to attention when George walks over to him and Dream, his amber eyes glittering in the candlelight. "It's a really clear night," He says, looking at Sapnap. "If you want to look at the stars one last time before your wings come in or whatever."
"Sure," Sapnap nods, glancing at Dream, who smiles and walks after them as George leads the way to the little ridge overlooking Unity.
He's right. The sky is cloudless and the moons are dim, the night is filled exclusively with stars , shimmering brightly up above them as Sapnap settles into the grass beside his friends to stare up at the constellations above. The glow from his wrists is starting to get distracting, though, and he has to shove them against the ground to focus.
George likes the stars - it must be something in the SkyWing part of him, used to the big, open expanse of the sky and stars in every direction for miles - and Sapnap likes them too, especially now, when he can sit with two of his friends in silence and stare up at the little points of light in the distance and imagine he's young and small again, falling asleep under Bad's wings.
"You're going to be asleep for five days," George finally says, voice low. He shifts, the grass making a soft noise as he drags his tail across it. " Then we can finally take you flying."
Sapnap puts his head down on the grass with a sigh. "I'm not sure I want to go flying."
George stares at him like Sapnap's just said hedgehogs can breathe underwater.
"You don't want to go flying?" George flicks him with his tail. "But you… you'll like it."
"No, I won't," Sapnap mumbles, annoyed. Why did George have to bring this up, especially when today was going so well before he did! Why does he have to worry about flying now of all times? Really?
"Well," George huffs. "Maybe Dream and I can show you," He says finally, sighing. "And you'd like it if we showed you, right?"
Sapnap considers that, thinking that yeah, actually, he does like the idea of flying more as soon as Dream and George are there. They're both bigger than him and strong fliers - if he fell or got caught in something or lightning struck him then one of them could catch him.
He leans forward to touch George's tail with his snout. "Yeah. You can show me." He sighs heavily, then looks up at the moons above them, watching them glitter in the distance. "In… five days."
George twists around to rest his tail against Sapnap's and watches him thoughtfully. Sapnap leans against him and Dream and takes a moment to rest in between them, here on the grass, without his wings, and staring at the stars. There will never be another moment just like this one, he thinks, nestling closer to them both. He'll never be a wingless dragon again, not after tonight.
And for once, in his entire life, he actually feels okay with that.
— — —
"Is it starting?" Sapnap asks, looking so horribly nervous as he stares at Bad, his eyes huge. He, along with Dream, Bad and Sylvee, are all standing in the loft, Sapnap staring down at his glowing wrists with his big, scared eyes.
Behind him, Dream can see the second moon slowly sinking toward the horizon, just like Bad said. It's going to happen soon, Dream knows, and a part of him wants to rush forward and scoop Sapnap up in his wings, so he can hold him tight and warm and close. He can't, though, he has to stay back and wait, patiently, for Sapnap to start, no matter how much it makes him want to rip his own wings to shreds .
Sylvee shakes her head. "Not yet, you haven't entered the trance yet." She dips her snout slightly, glancing at Sapnap's wrists. "Bad, have you seen his wrists?"
Bad frowns and looks closer at them, his face crinkling in concern as Sapnap holds his talons open, showing off the gold, glowing spots under his scales. Bad reaches forward with a talon curiously, and Sapnap pushes his wrist into Bad's palm.
"Warm," Bad comments, his face relaxing as he releases Sapnap's wrist. He smiles. "I don't know much about flamesilk but that's probably what it is." He nods at Sapnap warmly, sitting back. "You'll be alright."
"What if I light everything on fire?" Sapnap whispers, sounding so, so small and scared, as though he's a tiny dragonet again. Dream's heart aches so bad he thinks it'll burst - Sapnap is loud and boisterous most of the time, high energy with just the right amount of snap in him, but the past few days he's become subdued and small and nervous, so unlike himself that it's killing Dream to see it.
"You won't," Sylvee jumps in, shifting her wings slightly. "We're built to spin cocoons in trees, Sapnap - how would there be any flamesilks if all their cocoons burned the trees down?"
"I guess…" Sapnap whispers, scratching at his wrists and looking tiny again. "What if I do , though? What if I burn you?"
"You can't burn me ," Dream offers, holding out one of his fireproof talons. "I'll just grab Bad and Sylvee and use my wings to protect them if you do start burning anyone, which I don't think you will."
"I can jump off the loft," Sylvee says, giving Dream a look as she steps away from him.
Dream is about to glare at her for being grouchy when Sapnap's upset but Sapnap giggles at that, softly, as he takes in another short, sharp breath. He's so scared . Dream thinks, worrying the floor of the loft with his lower talons. I don't know how to help .
That thought makes it worse , because here he is, sitting right beside Sapnap and waiting, waiting for his friend to go through something he's been terrified of for the past few days. It makes him want to claw his scales off, not knowing how to help Sapnap feel less… frightened all the time.
Sapnap's breaths slow from the sharp, constant gasps of nerves to a more even, steady rhythm. His antennae unfurl slowly, and his body seems to relax in waves, his muscles slowly calming until he's smooth and calm and quiet. Bad takes a step back, to give him space, and Sylvee does too, glancing over her shoulder at their friends, who are all waiting below, as though she's considering flying down to sit with them.
Dream has no idea what she's thinking but whatever it is, it doesn't look very supportive, in his opinion. He considers grabbing her tail in one of his back talons in case she tries to leave. Stay here . Dream mentally snaps at her. Sapnap's scared and you're the only other SilkWing he knows .
She doesn't leave, though, she waits with Dream and Bad as Sapnap slowly raises his talons, his breath in even, soft puffs, like he's sleeping. They watch, all of them with baited breath, as Sapnap stills completely.
Fire explodes from his talons.
Not real fire, no, Dream doesn't feel even the slightest bit of heat as it rockets into the air, dazzling the room with sudden fierce light, as though he and Bad and Sam and George have all breathed fire at once. Sylvee takes a startled step back and Bad leaps out of the way of some of Sapnap's silk, even though it's not hot and won't burn him.
It's beautiful , though, Dream thinks, like the brilliant shimmering rays of the sun or the small tongues of flame that he breathes occasionally, usually at night when he's having trouble seeing. He looks like he's being coated in molten gold, warm and bright and brilliant , covering him like a gemstone nestled into a crown. Sapnap's silk is so pretty as he weaves it around himself, eyes held shut as it curls up and around and around, into a large, safe cocoon.
Just as the last few strands are winding their way around Sapnap's snout, though, he opens his eyes, and meets Dream's. Dream looks at him, into those warm, silver-green eyes, and does the only thing he can, he smiles.
Sapnap smiles back, and then he vanishes into the cocoon, disappearing into it with the softest of sighs. The cocoon's light dims a moment later, and then it's just Dream, Bad, and Sylvee standing on the floor of the loft, staring at Sapnap's softly glowing cocoon.
"Can he hear us?" Is the first thing Dream says, the moment he's got his breath. He glances to Sylvee, who's looking at Sapnap's cocoon with a pleasant expression, as though everything's turned out just the way she's expected it to. "And can I, like, touch it? Or will that hurt him?"
"He can't," She shakes her head. "No, he's asleep too deeply for that." She shifts her wings and stretches her tail behind her. "And no, you won't hurt it by touching it, not unless you go at it with your claws or something." She glares at them, like Dream would even think of doing that to his favorite dragon in the entire world.
"I won't," He responds, carefully stepping around Sapnap's cocoon to his little bed made of blankets on the floor nearby. He wonders if Sapnap will still want these after his metamorphosis is over - maybe he'll want a hammock like Sylvee - she's made herself one out of her own silk, carefully woven along the top of the ceiling out of the way of the rest of her room.
That makes him a little sad, though, as do Sapnap's blankets. He's missed sharing a room with Sapnap, curling up into a dragonet-pile with him, tucking their tails together and flopping his wings over Sapnap's back.
Will he still fit under my wings after this? Dream thinks sadly, as he slowly sits down on Sapnap's blankets. I sure hope he does - I don't want to lose that .
That's their thing - the thing none of their other friends can do. None of their other friends are small enough to slip entirely under one of Dream's wings, and Dream doesn't want to do it with anyone other than Sapnap. He sighs, lying down and inhaling Sapnap's warm, faintly cinnamon smell off the blankets as he rests his snout against Sapnap's cocoon, wondering about him and hoping he's alright.
"Well," Bad says gently, softly, as he carefully assesses Sapnap's cocoon. "I think we should head to bed - all of us have been up all night waiting for Sapnap, and we'll have to get things ready for him to come out in a few days." He sighs to himself sounding content, before he turns and hops off the loft easily, Sylvee on his tail.
"I'm staying up here!" Dream calls after him, shifting a little so he's closer to Sapnap and adjusting his wings so one of them is open and pressed against the cocoon. I'm right here, Sapnap, I'm not leaving .
He sighs, listening to the sounds of his friends moving about downstairs, getting ready to sleep, and Dream eventually finds himself drifting off as well, pressed against Sapnap's warm, soft cocoon and slipping into Dreams filled with flying and sunlight and dragons with butterfly wings.
— — —
The next few days pass the slowest out of any in Dream's entire life. It feels like agony to wake up every morning and not eat breakfast with Sapnap or to go and wade in the mud pools, waiting for Sapnap to come and find him before remembering he won't, at least, he won't yet .
Dream sleeps by Sapnap's cocoon at night, but if he sits beside it for too long he gets antsy and nervous and has to leave. He's just… worried, is all, worried about Sapnap and his metamorphosis, worried that he'll get hurt somehow, or that his wings won't come in right, worried… about a lot of things, really. He's just. Worried .
So he does whatever a worried dragon does, which in his case is get up and get ready for Sapnap to come out of his cocoon. He wants the house to be alright for him - Sylvee says that his wings will be ready to fly as soon as he's out but that they might be a little sensitive at first. Dream remembers the feeling of Sapnap pressing his wingbuds into his belly scales when they curled up together, as though he were trying to work out phantom aches.
He goes hunting a few times, bringing home prey he knows Sapnap likes, but it gets disheartening after the second day, when he knows he can't see Sapnap's face light up in delight with whatever he's been brought.
Dream writes about Sapnap in his scrolls, usually losing interest in whatever he was writing beforehand because he's so worried. Bad kicks him out of the house most days, making him go and do something else with his time rather than keep pacing the walls of the house and cooping himself up with nerves.
Sylvee is busy with something, working with the looms in her room and her silk, which she's been spinning into little balls and dyeing different colors. Mostly shades of red and orange, Dream's noticed, and he wonders if Sylvee's making a tapestry for Sapnap or something.
She made one of her own after emerging from her cocoon a couple months ago, and it hangs politely on the wall in her room, a very painstakingly created weaving of a white rabbit, which floats in a pink void and looks a little wonky and out of proportion. Her newer weavings are better, though, and she can capture a dragon's likeness startlingly well even with just two colors.
Sylvee occasionally sends him on little quests to get plants and shells and fruit she can use to make dye and he comes back with his talons smelling like blackberries and snail shells and saffron flowers.
Occasionally he'll go flying with Sam or George, but he doesn't want to leave the house for too long, even if Sapnap's not going to come out for days . He just… wants to be there, wants to be near the cocoon, even if it makes him a little sad, just in case something bad happens to it.
He does go to the library, though - on the fourth day - to see if they have any books or scrolls about flamesilks. Unity's library is built into a cave system near the top of the cliffs, high up and out of the way in case the river floods again and they need to keep the scrolls and books safe. There's a path that leads up to it, steep and sheer and carved into the mountain itself, that Sapnap and Sylvee used when they were younger, but most of the dragon structures in Pyrrhia aren't built for wingless dragons, and it's easier to fly up to the top.
Dream slips inside, past one of the librarians - a kind RainWing about Bad's age with a pair of glasses on her snout - who looks up at him and nods, and toward the back of the caves, where he's only got the fire-filled globes on the ceiling to light his way.
There are all kinds of scrolls and books in the library, but the ones on Pantalan tribes are kept in the very back, away from the harsh elements and up a slope so they'll be safe and out of the way of any sort of disaster that could strike. While the two continents have pretty good contact now - there's even a permanent port for arriving dragons in the formerly unoccupied space between the Ice Kingdom and the Kingdom of Sand - it's still really hard to replace Pantalan books and scrolls, and it takes forever .
Dream knows this because he'd been lectured by one of the other librarians - a very tired LeafWing - about it when he was two and dropped a book on accident, and ever since then he's been very careful with the material back here.
"Flamesilk, flamesilk," Dream mutters to himself, looking between the books and scanning titles curiously. Lots of books on web structure and construction techniques, as well as a few art books on weaving, but not many on flamesilk specifically. He sighs, disappointed. He'd thought that after so many years there'd be some information on the topic, but it seems to be- there!
" Flamesilk: Lineage, Abilities, and Biology, by Cricket of the Hivewings and Blue of the SilkWings ," Dream reads aloud from the spine of the book, which sounds promising, before he carefully taking it off the shelf and flies down to one of the many tables and reading nooks scattered around the library. He takes an unlit lantern from the center of the table and lights it so he can read, settling himself down on a cushion.
The book is very interesting, actually, and Dream finds himself being completely absorbed almost instantly. He knows about Luna and Blue, two SilkWings who helped overthrow Queen Wasp, from history scrolls, but he's startled to realize that most flamesilk dragons are related , which means Sapnap might be related to two of the heroes in the history scrolls.
He pauses a moment, wondering if Sapnap ever thinks about his family back on Pantala. Dream thinks about his family sometimes - the lost MudWing brothers and sisters he'd never gotten to meet. He'd been orphaned as an egg, brought here by Bad, and he wonders about them sometimes, about the dragons he's descended from and the dragons he was meant to know. He wonders if that's how Sapnap feels about Pantala - if there are SilkWings there he's related too and never met, grandparents or uncles or aunts or cousins.
Dream keeps reading, discovering on the next page that there are more kinds of flamesilk - obviously there was the glowing silk Sapnap had spun for his cocoon, but there's some silk that makes fire or produces more light, which is fascinating , in his opinion. There's an attached picture of a flamesilk tapestry in this part of the book, made by Luna herself out of flamesilk and depicting a graceful dragon soaring above the treetops.
He imagines Sapnap weaving something like this, maybe at a loom like Sylvee does, and he smiles, thinking about Sapnap trying to weave a tapestry as elegantly as she does.
Dream flips through the rest of the book - which is mostly filled with not-that-interesting (at least in his opinion) scientific analysis of how flamesilk is produced and where it may have evolved from - and then carefully sets it on the shelf, extinguishes his lamp, and leaves the library feeling an awful lot more prepared for Sapnap to come out of his cocoon.
— — —
Dream doesn't get home until later that day, when long shadows are stretching across the valley. Sylvee is outside when he lands, standing in the large patch of grass out front with silk and weavings and dye and looms spread out across the grass and bushes around her. It looks like a very organized mess, and Dream is very careful not to step on any of it as he walks toward their home.
"Where's George?" She asks as he walks past, without looking up, and Dream pauses, thinking.
"Sleeping, probably," He shrugs. "That or out hunting. I don't know, actually, I've hardly seen him all day."
"Huh," Sylvee shakes her head, looking back at the weavings in front of her with a sigh.
"Can I help?" Dream asks cautiously, carefully stepping toward her. Sylvee looks up and over at him before dipping her head in a 'maybe' sort of gesture. He looks around at the silk and woven fabrics curiously. "What are you making?"
"A bag," She nods to a pile of pink silk that's already being half-woven into a pouch, one that would fit easily around her neck and shoulders. "For myself, and I'm trying to make one for Sapnap, too." She sighs, looking at the colorful silk around her. "But I'm trying to make his stronger than mine, and I don't know which of these colors to use. I wanted to use yellow, like his belly scales, but none of my yellow is strong enough." Sylvee folds her wings back, ruffling them a little as she does so, and carefully moves the yellow silk off a patch of grass to a nearby shrub.
"Maybe you should do it in black?" Dream suggests, pointing to a skein of black silk near her tail. "He likes black." He pauses, thinking. "Why are you making bags, again?"
Sylvee looks thoughtfully at the black silk, then at the soft browns and ambers beside it, before she finally selects one that's the shade of ultisol, turning back to the loom nearby. "It's an old SilkWing tradition," She shrugs. "I've read about it before - apparently a long time ago SilkWings used to take time off after their metamorphosis and go exploring with their new wings."
"Really?" Dream asks curiously, watching her carefully thread the loom before starting to work. He tilts his head, looking at her wings. "Did you… want to go on one of those trips?" He finally asks, curious.
"I'm still going to go on one," Sylvee laughs, not looking up as she starts weaving the brown silk together, picking up some of the black silk to push that inside as well. "I was just waiting for Sapnap to go through metamorphosis first."
Dream suddenly feels a sinking feeling in his heart at those words. Sapnap going through his metamorphosis first… is Sapnap going with her? Is that why she's waited so long? Is he… surely not… but maybe he… maybe he wants to be with a dragon from his own tribe, not… not a MudWing, like Dream is. He can't see it, though - sure, Sylvee and Sapnap have always been close , but it's a teasing, friendly close, not… anything more.
Or I've just been too in love with him to notice . Dream thinks to himself with a lurch in his belly. Maybe he and Sylvee have been a thing this whole time and I just never realized it.
"O- oh," Dream manages to choke out in response to her statement. "That's… that's great, I- I'm happy for you."
"What?" Sylvee stops what she's doing to turn around and laugh at him. "By all the moons , Dream, no , not like that ." She shakes herself off from snout to tail, like she's shaking off the idea itself. "I waited for his metamorphosis so he wouldn't have to go through it without another SilkWing nearby," She explains.
"So you two aren't together?" Dream finally asks, feeling his heart lift like there's a bright, hot wind under his wings, lifting him into the sky.
"Why would I even bother with that, Dream," Sylvee scoffs, rolling her eyes at him. "He's been hopelessly in love with you since the day he hatched."
"He's in love with me? " Dream feels that soaring, sun-warm feeling race through him again and all of a sudden he wants to run, wants to sprint over the hills and leap into the sky and fly and fly with joy, his entire body vibrating with excitement and joy and fierce, beautiful love . "You're sure?"
Sylvee gives him a look that says: How in the moons could you not know this already, beehive-brain? Dream gets the point, feeling himself thrum with energy, and he nods, feeling more alive than he has in days .
"I- I'll be back," He tells Sylvee quickly, then hops over the silk scattered around them and leaps into the sky, rocketing toward the sky on the updraft of his joy. He twists halfway up and dives, soaring along the river and flying so fast he leaves a wake in the water behind him.
Sapnap loves me! All of his scales and heart and fire and soul sing with joy. He loves me! He loves me! HE LOVES ME!!!
Dream flies almost all the way out to sea, following the river through the mountains, over a scavenger den, and toward the ocean, banking to fly along the beach itself. He finds a muddy part of the beach a moment later and lands, flinging himself into the mud and rolling around in it, his entire body singing with happiness. The mud is cool on his scales and the earth makes him feel more alive than he's felt in days.
He rolls around in it for a while, settling down to watch the sun sink behind the mountains and waiting for the stars to come out as well, glittering in the inky-black sky.
After a while George appears, gliding out of the valley and searching the ground curiously. Dream wriggles in the mud, carefully pulling himself up a little and breathing a small flame, just enough that George can see him.
He washes off in the ocean as George lands, shaking himself until he's fully dry.
" There you are!" George says, walking toward him with his wings folded back. "I was wondering where you went - Bad and Skeppy brought this cold ice thing from the market and we were looking for you to get you to try some of it but you weren't there ."
"I know, sorry," Dream laughs, breathless. "I- George, did you-" He trips over himself as he tries to explain. "Sylvee told me that Sapnap- Sapnap likes me, George-"
George gives him a look , before he laughs. "Dream, that's so obvious - how did it take you this long to notice?"
Dream stares at him for a minute. "Well, in my defense he didn't exactly tell me - and neither did any of you guys ."
George shakes out his wings and walks up to Dream. "That's because it's obvious - haven't you noticed how much he does that thing with your wings? Where he slides himself underneath them every time he's near you?"
"He's the only one of you small enough to do that," Dream defends, although the thought makes his heart jump again, warmth spilling through him. He does that on purpose, he loves my wings because he loves me !
"No, he's not," George rolls his eyes, then flattens his wings against his back and ducks under Dream's wing. Dream knows George is short for a SkyWing ( very short, actually, shorter than Dream and Sam) but it still surprises him just how easy it is for George to settle himself under Dream's wings, the way Sapnap does.
Although with George it's weird feeling, because Dream's not used to George, all his spines are in the wrong places and his horns are different than Sapnap's and he holds himself differently.
"See?" George asks with a shift of his wings. "I can still fit." He pulls himself away a minute later, though, batting Dream's wing out of the way with his talons. "The only reason I don't do that is because you and I aren't like that with each other - Sapnap is ."
"Oh," Dream folds his wing back down, imagining Sapnap beneath it again and feeling warmth fill him from horns to tail. "I didn't even realize that's why he did it all the time."
George gives him a look that seems to say ' well now you do ', before he shakes himself off and looks up at the sky. "We'd better get back - everyone will be waiting for us and we've got to wait for Sapnap to… cocoon hatch?" The last part of his sentence comes out more of a question and Dream laughs, spreading his wings.
"Race you home?" He asks George, and before he can get a response he's up in the sky, flying as hard as he can toward home - toward Sapnap .
— — —
Dream is woken from his peaceful, warm sleep by the sound of scratching. He sits bolt upright when he realizes where it's coming from - the cocoon beside him .
"Sapnap?" Dream whispers softly, hardly daring to breathe as he stares into the side of the cocoon. "Sapnap, is that you?"
There's the sound of scratching again, sharp and distinct, and Dream sucks in a sharp breath and sits up, leaning back on his talons and staring at the cocoon. It's happening . He thinks to himself. It's really happening .
"Bad!" He calls, leaping off the side of the loft and catching himself on his wings. "Bad! Where's Sylvee? I think Sapnap's coming out of his cocoon!"
Sylvee appears from a doorway nearby, yawning, and Bad pokes his head out from the kitchen, walking up to him a moment later. George appears as well, climbing out of one of the hallways that lead to the cave their home is partially built into, where he likes to sleep surrounded by cool stone. He can hear Skeppy and Sam and Gia shuffling around somewhere as well, and Dream knows they'll be waiting down here to see Sapnap's wings when he emerges.
"It's happening?" Bad asks curiously, then walks past Dream and flaps up to the loft easily. "You heard him?"
"Yes," Dream nods, scrambling up after Bad and making room for Sylvee to climb up beside him. "I heard scratching, and-"
The entire cocoon wriggles suddenly, and he falls silent, his breath stolen from him at the movement.
It's really happening . Dream thinks to himself. He's really coming out of his cocoon .
"What do we do?" He asks nervously, stepping forward to rest a talon on the side of the cocoon, imagining that it's Sapnap's scales he's resting his talons against instead of the softly glowing silk. "Does he need, like, help?"
"Space," Sylvee says gently. "He's going to want a minute to breathe, something to drink, and probably something to eat." She glances over her shoulder at George, and Dream hears his friend's claws click on the floor as he goes to get food.
Dream hops off the loft again and grabs a cup before scurrying outside to the spring nearby, feeling a little awkward walking on three talons. He holds it gingerly as he flies back to the loft, careful not to slosh it everywhere, and then he sits down, holds the cup, and waits.
The cocoon rocks back and forth again, this time harder, and the scratching, scrambling sound grows louder and louder before all of a sudden a fire-colored talon bursts through the silk, clawing its way free, followed by another talon, and the entire cocoon collapses a moment later, bursting open as the dragon inside wriggles free.
Sapnap is as beautiful as he's always been, Dream thinks with a leap of joy in his chest at seeing his favorite dragon in the whole world once again. Handsome colors in shades of flame red and lemon yellow and tangerine orange, speckled here and there with little dots of blue-purple.
He fights his way out of the entire cocoon, dragging himself forward and kicking it off himself, his tail slips out and lies on the ground like the rest of him, looking exhausted as he gasps for breath, sides heaving. Dream resists the urge to rush forward and scoop him up in a hug, waiting until Sapnap's caught his breath and is sitting up slowly, blinking in the dim light of the morning.
Sapnap makes eye contact with Dream and his entire face lights up with joy. "Dream!" He rasps softly, eyes gleaming brightly, and Dream grins at him, stepping close and offering the water.
"I brought you some water," Dream says, and Sapnap takes the water gratefully, drinking it in one go but never taking those big, adoring green eyes off Dream.
"Thank you," He nods, dipping his head, before he stretches the same way he always does, and finally, finally opens his wings.
Dream's breath catches in his throat and he stares, awestruck.
Sapnap's wings are beautiful , mostly tangerine orange, but with large spots of brilliant warm yellow on the inner parts and a deep, night-dark blue along the outer edges. There's a purple shade spotted along the outer webbing, and the tips of each finger are a deeper, richer blue.
He's so pretty, Dream thinks, hardly able to breathe. This beautiful, fire-gold dragon loves me.
As if on cue, Sapnap smiles, folds his wings back, and launches himself into Dream's talons and wings for a hug. Dream catches him with a startled laugh, wrapping his wings around Sapnap and feeling his heart soar as he realizes that yes, Sapnap does still fit under his wings, nestled close and comfortable and held .
He can still fit . Dream realizes with a delighted flutter in his chest. I can still hold him!
"I missed you," Sapnap mumbles into Dream's scales, then pulls away and holds out his wings again, looking at Sylvee and Bad, who both look pleased with him.
"Do they look alright?" He asks, shaking one off carefully. "They look okay, right?"
Sylvee rolls her eyes affectionately. "Sapnap, they're fine. You're very pretty, I promise."
"You are," Bad agrees, smiling as he steps forward. "May I?"
"Yeah," Sapnap nods, holding one wing forward for Bad to touch. Their NightWing friend prods at the membrane curiously for a minute before he releases Sapnap's wing with a smile.
"Nice and strong," He promises. "You'll be flying in no time."
Dream wonders if he's the only one who sees the brief flicker of nervousness cross Sapnap's face, but before he can mention it, Sapnap is trotting over to the ladder off the loft, accidentally whacking Dream with a wing when he does so.
"Sorry!" Sapnap yelps, looking startled, but Dream just laughs.
"You've had wings for all of three hundred heartbeats and you're already using them to smack Dream?" George calls from somewhere below, sounding faux-disappointed. " What are we going to do with you?"
Dream hops off the loft to watch Sapnap climb carefully down the ladder, the way he always does, only this time a little more surely , almost like his body itself has adjusted to the knowledge that falling won't hurt anymore, now that he can catch himself.
George, Skeppy, Sam, and Gia are all delighted with the look of him, all of them clamoring to get a good look at his new wings, which Sapnap parades around happily, holding them open for all his friends to see. He looks awfully pleased with himself, and Dream finds himself unable to stop smiling as he watches Sapnap strut.
Gia's already turned her scales to match Sapnap's, focusing to get the color and patterning just right, so her RainWing scales match his SilkWing ones. Dream will always know which of them is Sapnap, though, because he'd recognize that elegant snout and graceful tail and carefully built talons anywhere .
Naturally they're all going to have breakfast together, but as everyone else rushes off to go prepare it, Sapnap slips over to Dream, his wings folded against his sides.
"Hi," He says shyly, looking at Dream, then glancing along Dream's wings curiously.
"Hi," Dream responds, smiling as he realizes what Sapnap wants immediately. He opens one wing and waits as Sapnap walks around him, then as carefully as before, he slides underneath.
His wings are a little bulky now, making his sides feel thicker and more sturdy, but he fits just the way he used to, sliding right into his spot and right into Dream's heart again, leaning against him and smiling with all the sunshine in the entire world.
"I missed you too," Dream says softly, looking over at him. "I missed you a lot , actually. I… I was worried you wouldn't fit under my wing like this again after your metamorphosis."
"I was worried about that too," Sapnap admits with a duck of his head, before he leans into Dream again, his entire body warm and small and thrumming with aliveness . Dream can feel Sapnap's heartbeat everywhere their scales connect and it makes his heart sing with joy.
"But I still fit," Sapnap smiles, nudging Dream with his snout. "Because your wings are huge ."
"Or your wings are very small ," Dream teases, squeezing him with his wing.
"Or we were meant to be like this," Sapnap finally says, voice wistful. "Like our wings were made for fitting together like we do."
"Huh," Dream hums to himself thoughtfully, then looks down at Sapnap. He's never believed in soulmates, because soulmates are a silly concept in his eyes, but he does believe in the dragons around him shaping who he is - maybe his body and Sapnap's body are meant to lock together like this, because they've been shaped by one another. Maybe this is how it's supposed to be because this is how they know themselves, maybe that's what's happened and how they've gotten this way.
Either way, Dream loves it, and he especially loves the warm feeling of Sapnap beneath his wing right now, his weight and extra bulk from his wings, the way he looks at Dream like he's a solid, warm rock to hold him steady or a big puddle to slip into and nap in, like Dream is his entire world .
"Come on, let's go eat breakfast," Sapnap finally says, laughing and nudging Dream again with his snout. "I'm starving ."
Dream laughs and walks with him, his wing around Sapnap the whole way there.
— — —
"For moon's sake!" George does a flip in the sky, wings open. "You're being such a featherbrain right now, Sapnap, you can fly just as well as any other dragon!"
Sapnap looks down at the valley laid out before him and swallows, staring at it. He doesn't really want to fly, even with George and Dream hovering nearby just in case.
"Can't I just glide down it?" Sapnap asks George, shifting from talon-to-talon nervously. He's glided from this height before (he's a very good glider, in his opinion - who even needs to fly when you're an excellent climber and an even better glider!?) but he's never flown , and Dream and George are expecting him to jump off from here, beat his wings, and come meet George up in the air beside him instead of gliding gracefully down to the valley below him like a normal dragon.
"No!" George scowls at him, pausing to hover and glare at Sapnap in annoyance. "You've already glided down from here, you're supposed to fly ."
Sapnap swallows, looking down at the ground far, far below him, then up at George, wondering if he can somehow talk George (who is one of the most stubborn dragons he knows) into letting him glide down the slope instead of fly over it. He decides not to, and lets out a shuddering sigh, opening his wings.
"It's easy ," George promises. "You just jump off with your wings open and start flapping them, Sapnap, dragons are built to fly."
Sapnap stares at him crossly. "I know that, but you've been flying since you were a year old!" He protests. "I have to learn how to do it now ."
"It's really not too hard," Dream offers from where he's circling below George. "I promise , Sapnap, you'll be fine . You just have to jump off the cliff and beat your wings - they'll do the work after that."
Sapnap looks back at his wings, which he's only had for twelve days. They still don't really feel like a part of himself yet, more like an awkward set of flapping things that he's got glued to his back for some reason. He takes a deep breath and looks up at Dream.
"Alright," He says slowly, staring at him. "I. Um."
He glances down at his claws, wondering if he could weave himself a harness or something, so Dream would have something to grab onto if he fell, but he's not that good with his silk yet, and Sylvee's not here to teach him how to use it right - not after she left three days ago.
He takes another deep breath, flexes his wings, then shuts his eyes and leaps .
There's a single terrifying moment where he forgets to flap his wings before he's beating them as hard as he possibly can, eyes still squeezed shut out of fear. He hears George cheer from somewhere above him but he still doesn't open his eyes, his belly swooping in terror so much he's worried he'll be sick if he does so.
"Sapnap." Sapnap feels the warm brush of Dream's breath on his scales and the wind stirred up by his flight right beside him before he feels warm talons meet his own.
"You're supposed to keep your eyes open ," Dream says, a soft laugh in his tone. "Come on, let me see them."
Sapnap nervously opens his eyes to find Dream looking back at him, his own eyes filled with warmth and wonder and adoration as they fly together, talon-in-talon. Sapnap slowly winds a bit of his golden silk out from his wrists, winding their talons together as they hover.
"It's not so bad, see," Dream says warmly, nodding his head.
"I guess," Sapnap grumbles, then looks down and wishes he hadn't. "I think I want to land now."
"Okay," Dream laughs, and gently releases him, slipping his talons out of Sapnap's silk so they can glide down from the sky onto the soft moss of the forest below. George swoops down after them, looking a little miffed.
"That was hardly any flying," He protests weakly, folding his wings. "You can fly more than that, Sapnap, I know you can."
"Maybe," Sapnap says with a shrug and a sigh, folding his own wings back. "But later. Not right now. I'm done for right now."
"Next time we should try taking off from the ground," Dream says thoughtfully. "That's important to know, right?"
"Yeah," Sapnap concedes, thinking about the time he was too small to get out of the valley on his own. "Yeah, that's probably important." He yawns, tired. "But right now I think I wanna lie down. I'm really tired."
"I'll come with you," Dream says warmly, and George rolls his eyes with an affectionate ' you are impossible ' face before he darts off back into the sky, to fly off into the distance and do whatever it is he likes so much about flying.
Dream walks with Sapnap down to the river, upstream from the mud pools, and they settle in a warm patch of sunlit moss with butterflies fluttering all around them. Sapnap tucks himself up against Dream's side with a happy sigh, feeling safe and content again with his talons on solid ground and his back resting against Dream's warm scales.
He looks down at his talons, and at his wrists, before carefully spinning a bit of silk, winding it around his front legs like a bracelet. It's the kind that glows but doesn't burn, firefly silk, if he remembers correctly.
"That's pretty," Dream murmurs, looking over Sapnap's head to look at his silk.
Sapnap flicks his tail, pleased, then uses his talons to carefully spin a little more, trying to weave it gracefully around Dream's front talons as well. He has to concentrate really hard, though, because he's not quite good enough at spinning yet to not get tangled in his own silk half the time. Dream appreciates his attempt, though, running a gentle claw down one strand and smiling at the silk wound around him.
"I've been thinking about Sylvee," Dream says thoughtfully, leaning down to put his snout over Sapnap's neck. "And the trip she's going on, y'know, to explore the world and all."
"Yeah," Sapnap hums, thinking about their friend. She'd left three days ago, off to explore Pyrrhia and eventually Pantala with her wings. He understands that wanderlust, on a deep, instinctual level, the want and need to move and run and explore beyond the world he's always known.
He sighs and leans against Dream. "I've thought about it too," he admits, smiling. "About going out to explore and learn about the world, see all the stuff we've only heard about in books and scrolls."
"Queen Otter's palace," Dream says thoughtfully, his face wistful as he imagines the MudWing Queen's central city, filled with MudWings like him, scattered with marshland and forests and agriculture - the Mud Kingdom's swamps have slowly become one of the largest sources of food across the continent, with constant research happening at the central palace. Sapnap wonders if Dream's ever longed to go and explore the Mud Kingdom before, his natural habitat.
"And Queen Glory's RainWing village," Sapnap adds, thinking of the big, warm rainforest to the south, full of trees! "The Clash of Claws tournament in the Sky Kingdom is this year too - they're supposed to have a huge turnout."
"Mm," Dream nods, smiling. "Queen Auklet's new Beach Palace - the one with all the free SeaWing scrolls and live readings, and the New Night Kingdom's got a pretty cool museum! Princess Fierceteeth's finally opened it to everyone, according to Bad."
"Yeah," Sapnap sighs. "The Moon festivals in Queen Thorn's city are apparently really good, too, and the Ice Kingdom's got a huge display of animus-touched objects."
"And there's, you know, Pantala," Dream offers softly, lifting his head to look at Sapnap. They both don't know much about the other continent, other than the little scraps of information dragons bring back here and there. They have no idea what's really out there, other than some vagueness about hives and forests and silk studies and books.
Sapnap thinks about it sometimes, wondering if he has grandparents or other relatives out there in Pantala, someone other than the parents who died before he hatched or the uncle who brought him here. He thinks about them now, strange mystery dragons who he doesn't know and might never know.
"Yeah," Sapnap says. "I guess there is."
They sit in silence for a long, long moment, before Sapnap finally twists slightly, looking over at Dream. "Would you come with me?"
"Come with you?" Dream tilts his head curiously.
"If I went on an exploring trip," Sapnap explains. "Like Sylvee is on. If I went on one of those to explore and see everything, would you come with me on it?"
"Yes!" Dream says, his face lighting up with joy. "Why would you even ask that, Sapnap, of course I'd come with you!" He nudges Sapnap with his snout. "Exploring the world with you…" he sighs, leaning against Sapnap's scales with the happiest noise in the world. "That sounds awesome ."
Sapnap's heart and scales sing and he leans against Dream, his partner, his favorite dragon in the entire world. His entire body feels like it's trembling with excitement and flamesilk and warmth, and he nuzzles closer against Dream, feeling the warmth of his scales and pausing, so he can wind a bit of his golden silk around Dream's talons and his own, weaving them together again.
"Just us… exploring the world…" He sighs softly, nuzzling Dream's neck. "I can't wait ."